November 17, 2020

Today’s reading
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 1:41 King James Version
41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

This miracle follows a very early morning prayer session with the Father. The disciples go out looking for Jesus in hopes that Jesus will capitalize on His newfound fame (vs 37). Surprisingly, to them, Jesus says we need to travel to another town (vs38) You see Jesus didn’t come to be famous He came to save, serve, and to minister. We see the very passion of Jesus in verse 41. That word compassion here is actually two Greek words combined to make one word, it’s the word “splangchnizomai” if you say that word out loud you’re probably going to have to wipe your devices screen off, if you say it out loud in public you’ll probably going to get a God bless you in return. But what does it mean? “Splangchnizomai” means moved in my guts. Jesus was so moved on the inside by what He saw that He had to help, after all that’s why He came. What other explanation can be made for a healthy man to touch a man with the highly contagious leprosy? But you see Jesus can’t be contaminated he can only cleanse. I love this passage because it shows us what Jesus truly was passionate about, people, hurting people, sick people, sinful people. This passion that Jesus has was so strong it sent Him to a cross to die for those people that He cared about and loved so much.
My question to you is this, what is your passion? Is it sports? A relationship? Your children? Your job? Politics, or a political party or candidate? When is the last time you were truly “moved in your guts” for someone who was hurting or needed help? Last time you were “moved in your guts” for your lost neighbors or family? That was a tough question for me to field myself. Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us to see people the way Jesus did. Jesus made a difference in the way He loved and I don’t know about you but I want to as well.

Frank Newsome